Poor Ray Lewis. His initial venture into sociology gets shot down right in our corner of the world.

No, really. Lewis told ESPN the other day that an NFL lockout could cause a spike in crime. "If we don't have a season, watch how much evil, which we call crime, how much crime picks up, if you take away our game. There's nothing else to do," he said.

And here, in the tiny hamlet of East Lyme, Lewis' theory went up in flames.

Turns out that three of East Lyme's most upstanding citizens were actually watching a football game in early January when they decided, what the hell, to burn down a building.

Perhaps you followed the farcical foray into the court system, during which remorseful "honor students" from the burbs got what society would normally call a wrist slap. Except that "slap" seems too violent, certainly not as violent as arson, for Christian Bardoli, Matias Francone and Alexander Tsuji, who pleaded guilty in New London Superior Court Monday to second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree reckless endangerment.

Just so we all understand: Three young men from East Lyme, who, according to their attorneys would make St. Francis of Assisi felonious by comparison, were watching a football game in January when they decided to burn down a building.

(Think about that sentence for a minute).

Their all-around East Lyme-ness, apparently, trumped premeditated pyromania. In exchange for torching the vacant warehouse at 16 Mostowy Road in East Lyme, they received 90-day prison sentences. No word whether the sentences require corrections officers to place a mint on their pillows at night. It's the least they could do, though, for such honor students, volunteers, good kids, and all around swell eggs.

Hard to know where to start. Maybe here: Nobody watches more sports than I do. And in all my years, I can't say I've ever turned to my wife and said, "Honey, I'm just going out for a minute to commit arson."

But then, it's not like we haven't read a spate of recent stories about "bored" young people who can't seem to entertain themselves without committing felonies. Just thinking out loud here, but doesn't this episode suggest that cultural degeneracy is alive and well in the suburbs, too?

I'm naïve enough to think that issuing punishment for deviant behavior should be delivered as crows sit on a telephone wire and umpires call balls and strikes: dispassionately. Once again, though, we see that pigmentation has its privileges.

Sorry. But if three minority kids from New London did the exact same thing under the same circumstances - honor students with a premeditated act followed by a sob story - would the punishment have been the same? Would the reaction have been the same from the lawyers, the judge and all the cultural arbiters out there?

The kids just made a mistake? Please.

And I loved the part about how a "sit down" with the firefighter they hospitalized in the process made it all better. You'll have to text me the next time "sob story merits less jail time" is an option made available to all criminals.

Judge Patrick J. Clifford "struggled with the plea deal" according to the account in The Day, saying, "The biggest problem I've had from the minute I heard about this case is, because of the backgrounds you have and all this work you've done at these prestigious universities, are you being treated differently?"

Nooooooo. What would make you ever think that?

Good thing, too, the building went up before they got accepted into the "prestigious universities." Doubt an admissions director would look kindly on the word "arson" written under the category of "please list all your extracurricular activities."

In case you're wondering whether I am screaming racism … You bet your sweet ascot I am. Racial bias goes way beyond spewing epithets and stereotypes about ethnic groups. Racism isn't just about words. It's about actions and perceptions. And let's face it: It's a lot easier, apparently, for lawyers, judges and self-appointed sociologists to dismiss the criminal actions of three white kids from East Lyme than three black kids from New London.

Not that this is new. We've seen it before on far bigger levels. Take the curious case of Plaxico Burress, the receiver for the Giants who has been incarcerated for 20 months. Burress pled guilty to attempted weapons possession in the second degree after he shot himself in the leg with a handgun he brought to a Manhattan nightclub.

Burress' wife Tiffany, an attorney in New York City, has cited examples in published reports about how defendants in the city have received less jail time for the same crime. Clearly, Mayor Bloomberg made an example of Burress, using his celebrity against him, as some big tough statement about guns on the streets.

Fine. You think if Mark Teixeira did the same thing, he'd be in jail for 20 months?

Please don't be obtuse enough to think I'm comparing three upstanding honor students from East Lyme to Plaxico Burress. But I am comparing the thinking that went into their punishments, or in both cases, the lack thereof.

Ninety days for purposely torching a building?

Are we really OK with that?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.